Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Civil War recordkeeping

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Laban Taylor Rasco Civil War documentToday I had the good fortune to find the Civil War records for my great-great-grandfather (my paternal grandmother’s paternal grandfather), Laban Taylor Rasco. I initially found him listed in Alabama, Census of Confederate Soldiers, a document I found on Ancestry.com. That listed his company and regiment (he fought for the Confederate Army), which allowed me to easily find a lot of documents at Fold3.com.

He’s not the first Civil War ancestor for whom I’ve found documents, but he is the first on the Confederate side. Through the documents, I learned that he was injured in the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgie in September 1863 and that he was a held as a prisoner of war in a Union prison camp in Talladega, Alabama, and paroled on June 3, 1865, after the war had ended.

Of course, I’m dazzled and amazed that in a matter of a few minutes I can uncover and read these documents via the miracles of scanning and the internet.

But I’m also really amazed by the recordkeeping that took place in this war. When you consider that most forms were filled out by hand and that thousands upon thousands of soldiers fought, it’s remarkable. My great great grandfather was a mere private and today I saw 10 different documents.

I saw the movie Lincoln this weekend (and heartily recommend it) and it brought to life the absence of technology of that era. I am so impressed with the organizational skills that allowed these records to be kept and retained. And, of course, it’s very impressive that they continue to be well organized and accessible.

Overwhelm strikes again

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My genealogy mind map

Today’s mind map

Today I had a little time to work on family history research and, once again, I got all tangled up in my head on what to work on. A tiny bit of perfectionism reared its head as I considered the best use of my time.

When I start to feel like this, I frequently get nothing done. And that’s what happened today–no genealogy research has taken place.

But what I did do was this: I got out a blank piece of paper and I did a little mind map, trying to get a big-picture view of my research. I thought about whether it was more important to grow my tree or to have as much information as possible on the ancestors who are already in my tree. (I’m adding only verified ancestors to my tree, but in the system I’ve created for myself it takes only one verified fact for me to enter someone to my family history software.)

In the course of creating the mind map (pictured above), I realized that, right now, I want my focus to be adding ancestors. I’m hoping in 2013 to take one or more research trips and the more ancestors I have on my tree at the time of such a trip, the better. (Or so it feels today.)

Of course, now I’ve run out of time to do any research today. But when I turn my attention to it later this week, I’m hoping the overwhelmed feeling will be gone.

Making connections

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Brown family, before trip to Nebraska, 1922

1922. My grandfather, Crawford Brown, is the boy on the left. The family drove that car to Nebraska from Missouri shortly after.

So far, for me, genealogy has been a fairly solitary pursuit. That’s kind of how I like things. I like to go at my own pace and I tend to stick to myself.

That’s not necessarily a good idea, as I discovered this week. On Sunday, I was contacted through this blog by my mother’s first cousin, Jerry Brown, who, along with his sister, Judy, has done extensive genealogical research. We corresponded a little, and then he introduced me via email to a whole bunch of Brown cousins, including some who live in the area I’m hoping to visit on a research trip, and they’ve been reaching out to me. (You can read a couple of the comments I received from them in the comments on this post.)

It’s been wonderful–what a friendly and loving family. They shared reminiscences of my grandparents (their aunt and uncle) and also shared some amazing family photos, including the wonderful photo above, which was sent to me by John Laflen.

The Browns have been so wonderful, it makes me want to reach out to other parts of my family, too.

If you’re reading this and you’re one of my Brown cousins, thank you! I look forward to meeting you in person. If you happen to be related to another part of my family, please feel free to leave a comment. I’m so glad that Jerry Brown did.

Documenting sources

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Properly documenting sources is really important to me as I explore my family history this time around. I want to be  confident about every fact I enter into my genealogy software.

I just read the article , “Genealogy GPS” in the current (October/November 2012) issue of Family Tree Magazine. I hadn’t realized that there’s a Genealogical Proof Standard (how great is that?). Reading the article added to my resolve about having high standards for the data I include in my family tree. In fact, I now think I want to go back and try to find a second source for any information I’ve already entered that has only one source.

I had a private conversation on Facebook with an old friend recently, who excitedly told me that he’d traced his roots back to the 12th century. He’d done so via clicking on family trees on Ancestry. When I mentioned that my own family history research involved using only confirmed data, he replied, “I resolved that sourced reference is terrific, but the speed and excitement of Ancestry.com is far more satisfying.”

Here’s the thing: My friend is having a great, satisfying time researching his family history this way and that’s perfectly okay. But I have to tell you, I get such a thrill when I track down a document that verifies the unconfirmed data I tracked down ten years ago during my own spate of that speedy and exciting Ancestry research. That’s what’s working for me.

The “Genealogy GPS” article is really terrific–chock full of resources. If you’re a subscriber, don’t overlook it. (And if you’re a newer family history researcher and not a reader of Family Tree Magazine, you really should consider subscribing. I love it.)